Abilene Storybook Experience App Launch Party

/ Abilene Convention Center/

MAY 11, 2024 - The Abilene Cultural Affairs Council invites you to the Abilene Storybook Experience App Launch Party from 10 am to 12 pm Saturday at the Adamson-Spalding Storybook Garden. The party is free and open to the public!

                Costumed characters will welcome guests to the garden, where you can enjoy free donuts and coffee while supplies last as well as hair chalking. Volunteers from the Genius Squad will be helping people download the game on their mobile devices and helping them play. Our celebrity guest is Elsie Stark, a Wylie ISD student who made it to the Top 5 in the most recent season of the Kids Baking Championship TV show on Food Network. Elsie will be giving away baked treats to the first 13 families to download the app. Everyone who downloads the app will receive a special app logo pin!

                The $100,000 app is made possible by a Cultural District grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and generous donors. The app is simple to use. Download Abilene Storybook Experience app on Google Play or Apple App store and play downtown. A map will appear when you open the game guiding you around the Cultural District to Storybook Sculptures and benches. At the sculptures, you can “collect” a virtual image of the book character and interact with it and take your photo with it. The virtual character stays in your collection on the app and you can interact with it even at home. At the benches, you can play a game by filling in the book quote words and virtually collecting the book covers. As you move around downtown, character buttons will pop up you can collect in your app.

“The Abilene Storybook Experience App will provide a fun way for the Cultural District to use augmented reality to experience the Storybook Sculptures and benches,” said Lynn Barnett, Abilene Chamber Vice President over the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council. “We think visitors will love it!”

The council is still accepting donations for the app through its 501c(3) arm, the Abilene Arts Alliance. Donations can be made online at www.abilenecac.org and clicking on the “Donate Now” button.

                Since 2019, the Cultural Affairs Council has been fortunate to receive over $500,000 in Cultural District Enhancement grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts. These grants have been matched by more $700,000 from local donors.